Aces High Bulletin Board

General Forums => Aces High General Discussion => Topic started by: Waffle on October 06, 2003, 05:44:58 PM

Title: Gunsight Distances - someone "official" pls clear this up!!
Post by: Waffle on October 06, 2003, 05:44:58 PM
I've had this discussion before but have never heard or found a correct answer .....the reason that I bring this up is that in another post, some one basically said that 4k was equal to 12,000 feet. Or in other words: The gunsight is mesured in Yards / Meters.

I find this very hard to believe.
The "k" stands for kilo and is used to designate 1000 of whatever unit you are measuring, be it meters or yards

If this is true, then a plane that is 1.2k icon range would be 1,200 feet away from you.  not 3600 feet or 3900 fett depending on yards / meters

When formation flying if a plane shows d50 away from you...I find it hard to believe that it is actually 150 feet away,if measured in yards...or 164 feet if measured in meters

If we were measuring in meters, then when a plane is d2.5 that would be 2.5 kilometers away would be 8,202 feet. Or roughly 1.5 miles.

If planes are pinging targets at 1.2k out - to some folks this would mean just shy of 4000 feet (meters) or 3600 feet (yards).

I'm under the conclusion that 1.2k = 1,200 feet.

Imaginge it would be pretty hard to hit another plane at distances greater than 1000 feet.

Someone clear this up pls....lol

Are sights measured in Yards / Meters or Feet.....
My Vote goes to feet....

 :)
Title: Gunsight Distances - someone "official" pls clear this up!!
Post by: Toad on October 06, 2003, 05:49:04 PM
Yards.

The "k" is for "thousand".

Do a search, HT spelled it out for repetitive non-believers some time ago.

Don't matter enough at true gun range anyway. ;)
Title: Gunsight Distances - someone "official" pls clear this up!!
Post by: Waffle on October 06, 2003, 05:54:13 PM
So then 1.2k is 1200 yards???  That equates to roughly 3/4 of a mile.... seems a little long to me. Isn't 3/4 of a mile about the range when snipers start to loose accuracy? Let alone a shaking moving platform firing upon another moving target?


:)


also did a search on this topic and measurement of distance, , but found no "official" words. Maybe need to look further...
Title: Gunsight Distances - someone "official" pls clear this up!!
Post by: JB73 on October 06, 2003, 06:27:56 PM
yes waffle it is YARDS...

2.6k in AH is 2600 yards + or - 100 (ie 2699 yards still shows 2.6k)


that is why so many get upset about the b17's killing them at D1.9 or up to D2.1 near 30,000 feet alt.

thats over 1 mile 1.9k = 5700 feet
5280 feet = 1 mile or 2.2 kilometers.


get on the highway and watch the mile markers. find a long straight strech and choose an object @ 1 point. then drive a mile away and identify that object. (good luck)
Title: Gunsight Distances - someone "official" pls clear this up!!
Post by: fullback on October 06, 2003, 06:38:33 PM
1 mile = 1.609 km
Title: Gunsight Distances - someone "official" pls clear this up!!
Post by: mos on October 06, 2003, 08:16:05 PM
Yes, that's the range at which guns begin losing accuracy.  Which is exactly why you shouldn't fire at that range, duh.
Title: Re: Gunsight Distances - someone "official" pls clear this up!!
Post by: Arlo on October 06, 2003, 08:31:00 PM
Quote
Originally posted by Waffle BAS

Are sights measured in Yards / Meters or Feet.....
My Vote goes to feet....

 :)


Oh look .... a vote! Sorry ... your "vote" doesn't count. The distance won't change through democracy.

And yes .... shooting from 1000 ft is better than shooting from 3000 ft (1k .... yards). :D
Title: Gunsight Distances - someone "official" pls clear this up!!
Post by: medicboy on October 06, 2003, 08:56:16 PM
it is yards.  The 50 cal's on the american planes for example have an efective range of around 1k, or 3000 ft.  Don't think of it in sniper terms.  Snipers are trying to hit a small target with one shot, doing the machine gun approach extends your range.  But really it is just a waste of ammo, It would take all of your bullets to shoot down a plane at 1k, don't shoot till you are under 600 yards for bombers and 5oo for planes, the closer the better.
Title: Gunsight Distances - someone "official" pls clear this up!!
Post by: Waffle on October 06, 2003, 09:10:17 PM
lol ~I usually dont shoot unless target is under d700, but I tend to laugh at getting pinged from d1.2.....I 've just heard many opinions on the distance (or confusion). It still just doesnt sink in that an icon will be almost 3.5 miles away at 6k.....seems like alot.....



wonder how hard it was to id a plane at 3.5 miles?

:)
Title: Gunsight Distances - someone "official" pls clear this up!!
Post by: Toad on October 06, 2003, 09:25:30 PM
Two things that some of you are forgetting.

The higher you go, the thinner the air. The thinner the air, the less the resistance on the bullet and thus, longer range with higher velocity. Big between sea level and 25k.

Second, how many of you guys have been up in the mountains on a clear day. You look across the valley and think it must be about 2 miles over to the other slope and then your guide tells you it's more like 5-6 miles over there.

Guess what? The higher you go, the farther you can see clearly too.

Just some things to think about.
Title: Gunsight Distances - someone "official" pls clear this up!!
Post by: Gunslinger on October 06, 2003, 09:31:13 PM
Quote
that is why so many get upset about the b17's killing them at D1.9 or up to D2.1 near 30,000 feet alt.


People dont realize that if they approach a B17 from the rear at level flight they will practically run into the bullets

Remember this:  The tail gunner on a 17 has the advantage he doesnt have to fly the plane and He's shooting with a HUGE tail wind...his rounds have less resistance than the ones shooting at them.  I'm no balistics expert by any meens but I know shooting into the wind is less accurate than the opposite.

People also dont realize when you get a hit from that far out from two moving objects its usually luck...but when you throw a hundred rounds down range your chances of getting lucky increase in your favor considerably.

Even a 5.56mm M16A2 W/ no scope (in the hands of a trained shooter) is extremly accurate even at 500 meters on a point target (average build man).  800 meters on an area target (group of people)

all
happy hunting
Title: Gunsight Distances - someone "official" pls clear this up!!
Post by: Waffle on October 06, 2003, 10:05:34 PM
I guess I'm a glutton for punishment....

Question? When you spot a plane at d 6.0 and you both turn head on for a pass...how long does it take before you merge?

Seems like around 5 seconds....

If plane "A" and plane "B" are d6.0 (3.5 miles) apart and doing 300 mph heading directly torwards each other, it takes approx. 20 seconds for each plane to cover 1.75 miles (roughly 147 yards/sec)

If each planes speed is increased to 400mph, it takes 15 seconds to cover 1.75 miles (195 yards per second).

Granted there are many variables in this equation, but it still seems to me that head on merges from d6.0 out take less than 5-7 seconds till merge.

If both planes are travelling at 400mph and have to cover 3000 feet to merge from d6k(we'll say d6k is actually 6000 feet instead of yards for this exercise :))

well 400mph is 586 feet/second...this equates to a little over 10.2 seconds for a plane to travel 6000 feet. So if both planes are heading towards on another in a straight line, it should only take about 5 seconds for both planes to cover 1/2 the distance and merge

To me, It seems that this is about the right time for an icon to appear at d6.0 until the merge......I don't think its ever taken more than 10 seconds from my experience from d6.0 to merge.


just my 2 cents......

Game on!
Title: Gunsight Distances - someone "official" pls clear this up!!
Post by: Innominate on October 06, 2003, 10:23:34 PM
heres an easier way to figure it out.

Have a friend park on the ground at sea level.. Fly over them at 3000 feet.  When directly over them, you will see them 1.0 away from you.

Its yards.
Title: Gunsight Distances - someone "official" pls clear this up!!
Post by: Waffle on October 06, 2003, 11:49:31 PM
so by this - when a plane is at 18,000 ft, and you are at sea level....you get d6.0k as icon?

So when behind and below nme bomber formations....when the distance is 6.0--if you have speed, can you climb the 18,000ft to hit them? even 18,000 feet in a 262 would be a chore...
Title: Gunsight Distances - someone "official" pls clear this up!!
Post by: scJazz on October 07, 2003, 12:38:15 AM
Quote
Originally posted by Innominate
heres an easier way to figure it out.

Have a friend park on the ground at sea level.. Fly over them at 3000 feet.  When directly over them, you will see them 1.0 away from you.

Its yards.


This is totally and utterly correct beyond any doubt. The distance marker you are reading is without question measured in yards.

A side effect of this is the measurement of a targets altitude. At times you'll find bombers flying high above you. When you think your right under them... take distance multiply by 3 and add it to your current altitude. This is the way I setup intercepts on buff groups.

As to another comment the effective range of a .50 bullet is 1700 yards or very close to 1 mile in AH. Yes, a single bullet fired by a sniper is unlikely to hit the target but what happens when you fire 100 bullets in the same 10 yard patch of space in a half a second?
Title: Gunsight Distances - someone "official" pls clear this up!!
Post by: Ghosth on October 07, 2003, 08:15:00 AM
FYI back when I was farming out in the minnesota sticks there were 3 local planes that I saw regularly.

All 3 were painted yellow, and roughly the same size.

1 was a stearman rigged as a cropduster,
1 was an aircat again as a cropduster.
1 was my buddy's  light plane.  

At 3 miles I had NO problem telling the 3 apart. The stearman I could maybe tell at 4 miles due to the bigwing.

Granted those are 3 very different looking planes, it would be tougher if the planes were harder to distinguish.

But then my life didn't depend on it either. :)
Title: Gunsight Distances - someone "official" pls clear this up!!
Post by: Shiva on October 07, 2003, 09:05:50 AM
Quote
Originally posted by Toad
The higher you go, the thinner the air. The thinner the air, the less the resistance on the bullet and thus, longer range with higher velocity. Big between sea level and 25k.


To illustrate Toad's statement, there is an organization called the Long Drive Association, which holds regular competitions for distance shots with a golf club. At competitions held at or below sea level, the winning range is generally around 315 yards, but the record holder for distance on a high-altitude course had a distance of 510 yards.  Now consider that this is for an altitude of around 10,000 feet, and think about how much range improvement you'd get with the additional decrease in air pressure from another 15,000 feet of altitude.
Title: Gunsight Distances - someone "official" pls clear this up!!
Post by: Waffle on October 07, 2003, 04:15:54 PM
In regards to this troll...Last night I was flying and was at (d6.0k) 18,000 feet over sea level...I couldn't see an Icon on a plane that was flying below me at (d1.3) 4,000 feet.

so I was close to d6.0k from the Sea Level and this guy was around d1.3 k from sea level.....

I should've seen an icon that said d4.7k correct???????


Or was that the no icon bug?

BTW, for grins...I still want to know how long you guys/gals believe it  takes to merge with a plane in a head-on pass from d6.0k.....or how long you think it takes from previous experience....

:)
Title: Gunsight Distances - someone "official" pls clear this up!!
Post by: NJMAW on October 07, 2003, 04:31:53 PM
Quote
Originally posted by Innominate
heres an easier way to figure it out.

Have a friend park on the ground at sea level.. Fly over them at 3000 feet.  When directly over them, you will see them 1.0 away from you.

Its yards.




Is that a creature off of  Aqua Teens hunger Force?:confused: :eek: ;)
Title: Gunsight Distances - someone "official" pls clear this up!!
Post by: Innominate on October 07, 2003, 05:41:17 PM
As for icons,
If you are under 100 feet AGL, your icon is only visibile out to 3.0k, not the 6.0k you're normally visible at. (note, that is YARDS still)
Title: Gunsight Distances - someone "official" pls clear this up!!
Post by: Waffle on October 07, 2003, 07:28:18 PM
Quote
Originally posted by Innominate
As for icons,
If you are under 100 feet AGL, your icon is only visibile out to 3.0k, not the 6.0k you're normally visible at. (note, that is YARDS still)


We were above the ocean :)
Title: Gunsight Distances - someone "official" pls clear this up!!
Post by: wetrat on October 07, 2003, 10:27:21 PM
Quote
Originally posted by JB73
get on the highway and watch the mile markers. find a long straight strech and choose an object @ 1 point. then drive a mile away and identify that object. (good luck)
Call me crazy, but I imagine it would be slightly less difficult to identify a hulking metallic object in an empty sky than it would be to identify a garbage can at the side of the road. But hey, what do I know?
Title: Gunsight Distances - someone "official" pls clear this up!!
Post by: JB73 on October 08, 2003, 01:00:27 AM
Quote
Originally posted by Innominate
As for icons,
If you are under 100 feet AGL, your icon is only visibile out to 3.0k, not the 6.0k you're normally visible at. (note, that is YARDS still)
umm actually it's 500 feet AGL.
Title: Gunsight Distances - someone "official" pls clear this up!!
Post by: JB73 on October 08, 2003, 01:02:37 AM
Quote
Originally posted by wetrat
Call me crazy, but I imagine it would be slightly less difficult to identify a hulking metallic object in an empty sky than it would be to identify a garbage can at the side of the road. But hey, what do I know?
not talking about a garbage can .. try a pickup parked. a 109 was not much bigger than a full size Chevy extended cab.

the biggest problem with a game on the computer is we are dealing with a few pixles instead of millions of points of light and binocular vision.

i was just making a point about distance anyway.
Title: Gunsight Distances - someone "official" pls clear this up!!
Post by: Toad on October 08, 2003, 03:22:22 PM
Again, visibility at sea level is far less than what you experience at higher alts. The air is simply much clearer.
Title: Gunsight Distances - someone "official" pls clear this up!!
Post by: ccvi on October 08, 2003, 03:51:06 PM
Quote
Originally posted by JB73
umm actually it's 500 feet AGL.


500 GND is radar alt. reduced icon range at 200 GND.

Quote
Originally posted by JB73
the biggest problem with a game on the computer is we are dealing with a few pixles instead of millions of points of light and binocular vision.


binocular vision is uselesss beyond 50 yards.